The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act of 2012 was signed into law on Apr. 5, 2012. This Act created several new securities exemptions. In particular, three sections of the JOBS Act legalized investment crowdfunding in various forms. In effect, crowdfunding may be defined as “general solicitation” or advertising via various types of media. Today, a large amount of promotional material is published online in a digital format and, prominently, on social media.
The three new securities exemptions under the JOBS Act include: Title II (referencing Accredited Crowdfunding, Reg. 506c), Title III (referencing Retail Crowdfunding, Reg. CF), and Title IV (referencing Reg. A+).
While Title II and Title IV are not encumbered with promotional restrictions beyond anti-fraud and suitability requirements, Title III may only be presented as a “Tombstone” type advertisement only. Tombstone advertisements are typically a type of advertisement containing prescribed information as limited by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
As mandated under Regulation CF, notices for offerings are limited to the following:                A statement that the issuer is conducting an offering pursuant to Section 4(a)(6) of the Securities Act;        The name of the intermediary through which the offering is being conducted and a link directing the potential investor to the intermediary's platform        The terms of the offering (the amount of securities offered, the nature of the securities, the price of the securities and the closing date of the offering period); and        Factual information about the legal identity and business location of the issuer, limited to the name of the issuer of the security, the address, phone number and website of the issuer, the e-mail address of a representative of the issuer and a brief description of the business of the issuer.        
Title III is an exemption that allows an issuer to raise up to $1 million, thus promotion may be constrained due to a limited budget. A method is, thus, needed to resolve the problems with this challenge.
Examples of related art are described below:
U.S. Pat. No. 8,234,193 provides for systems and methods for providing online promotions integrated with social network-based platforms. Promotion details such as rules, offered prizes, incentives and descriptions, survey questions, display banners, terms and conditions, privacy policy, and social networks to integrate the promotion with, are provided by the sponsoring organization to a server. The server generates a custom promotion application and/or widget for integrating with the organization's social network webpage and/or webpages external to social networks. A participant enters the promotion through these webpages or other links and lists friends in the social network to receive an invitation to enter the promotion. Viral features such as friend invite features, newsfeeds, minifeeds, other features that display online activities of users and people in the users' social network, notifications, requests, and other social network-based platform features to deliver messages to members of the one or more social network-based platforms further spread the word about the organization's promotion.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,527,344 provides for systems and methods in which users of a social networking system are provided with advertisements when accessing content associated with the social networking system. The content of such advertisement may be generated by other users of the social networking system. An advertiser may provide an advertising template containing an advertised message and fields wherein a user can input an endorsement. The social networking system generates a user interface responsive to the template and provides the user interface to an endorsing user to receive the user's endorsement for the advertised product or event. The social networking system generates an advertisement responsive to the advertisement content provided by the advertiser and the endorsement content provided by the endorsing user. The social networking user can provide the generated advertisements to viewing users who meet the advertisement's targeting criteria and display criteria provided by the endorsing user.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,538,846 provides for systems and methods for providing online promotions integrated with social network-based platforms. Promotion details such as rules, offered prizes, incentives and descriptions, survey questions, display banners, terms and conditions, privacy policy, and social networks to integrate the promotion with, are provided by the sponsoring organization to a server. The server generates a custom promotion application and/or widget for integrating with the organization's social network webpage and/or webpages external to social networks. A participant enters the promotion through these webpages or other links and lists friends in the social network to receive an invitation to enter the promotion. Viral features such as friend invite features, newsfeeds, minifeeds, other features that display online activities of users and people in the users' social network, notifications, requests, and other social network-based platform features to deliver messages to members of the one or more social network-based platforms further spread the word about the organization's promotion.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2013/0185228 provides for a computer based system for the collection, analysis and dissemination of data related to financial transactions using an Internet interface in order to minimize investment risk. The system includes a computer processor and a plurality of software applications adapted to run on said processor for performing a variety of functions. The processor and software together operate as a computer engine. A database is connected with the engine for storing data related to the transactions. Means are provided for inputting data to the database, and an application programming interface is carried by the engine for communication with software carried on third party systems through data feeds connected to the engine. A web application interface connected to the engine allows a user of the system to access the engine through a local terminal and display. The application interface permits the user to conduct searches of the database for information pertaining to a particular financial deal, said deal including a financial transaction or project and project profile. The software applications include at least one application programming interface for tracking deal analysis and storing the analysis on the database. The application interface permits a user to view the stored analysis on the user's local display.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2014/0012663 provides for systems and methods for providing online promotions integrated with social network-based platforms are disclosed. Promotion details such as rules, offered prizes, incentives and descriptions, survey questions, display banners, terms and conditions, privacy policy, and social networks to integrate the promotion with, are provided by the sponsoring organization to a server. The server generates a custom promotion application and/or widget for integrating with the organization's social network webpage and/or webpages external to social networks. A participant enters the promotion through these webpages or other links and lists friends in the social network to receive an invitation to enter the promotion. Viral features are used to deliver messages to members of the one or more social network-based platforms so as to further spread the word about the organization's promotion.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2014/0025473 provides for a crowdfunding platform can receive an indication that an entity has completed an action. Examples of an entity include a funder, a campaign account owner, a third party and a combination thereof. Examples of actions include making an investment, subscribing to a service, joining an entity's social network, etc. Upon receiving the indication, an account (e.g., a crowdfund account such as an investor and/or campaign account) can be credited with a value that can correspond to the completion of the action. Value can be transferred from an external account (such as, e.g., an external virtual currency account, etc.) to a crowdfund account and vice versa. If the transferor account is denominated in a different unit of value than the transferee account, an exchange rate can be determined and applied to the transaction.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2014/0040157 provides for systems and methods in which offers are presented to one or more users of a crowdfunding platform based upon information gathered from multiple users' activities across one or more campaigns. An offer may be provided to the fundraiser based on a campaign category, a campaign keyword, a campaign profile, and offer profile or user activity history. A user profile may be used to determine an offer by comparing the profile to attributes of one or more offers. The selected offer can be presented to users such as funders, fundraisers and others.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2014/0172505 provides for methods and systems for online support and promotion of authors. Upon allocation of creations to various categories, an author may be supported and promoted by an audience. The audience comprising multiple unregistered users may provide their assessment by viewing and listening to the creations of the author, leaving their comments or making votes. The assessment of the audience may increase a rating of the author or his creations. A high rating may prompt investors to provide a financial support to the author or his creations. The investors may provide the financial support in any amount and within any time period. Based on the financial support, an interest or a fixed amount from future income of the author or his creations may be provided to the investors and a service provider associated with online support and promotion of authors.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2015/0017611 provides for an apparatus for financial education, entrepreneurship education and life management. The apparatus can include a housing, at least one storage compartment received within the housing and including an interior cavity, a coin acceptor assembly adapted to receive a coin, determine the denomination of the coin, and deposit the coin into the storage compartment, electronic circuitry communicatively coupled to the coin acceptor assembly, a display device communicatively coupled to the electronic circuitry, at least one input device communicatively coupled to the electronic circuitry, wherein the electronic circuitry includes at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium storing executable instructions and a processor adapted to execute the instructions, wherein the instructions are adapted to display a graphic interface on the display device, and to receive input from a user via the at least one input device, so as to allow the user to manage a user account, the user account including a monetary balance.
International Patent Application No. WO2014/174398 provides for a system for competitive investment raising for a venture project. The system may include a memory to store data on a number of venture projects, and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory. The processor may be configured to receive the data on the number of venture projects, and assign one or more of the number of venture projects to a venture capitalist. The venture project assigned to the venture capitalist may be an assigned venture project. The processor may be also configured to provide a pre-investment amount to the assigned venture project; periodically receive a progress report from a representative of the assigned venture project; periodically receive an evaluation of the assigned venture project; based on the evaluation, periodically determine failed venture projects that drop out of the competitive investment raising; and determine a winning venture project. The winning venture project may receive an investment amount.
It is noted that none of the art described above addresses all of the issues that the present invention does.